Systems and methods are generally known for managing networks with the application of administrative consoles. One problem is how to enable network management by external service providers. A known solutions for management by an external service provider is to grant general administrative privileges to the service provider on a Local Area Network (LAN) or other network to be managed. Another known solution is to configure a firewall to permit access to the network from remote management consoles.
These known systems and methods for management by external service providers have several disadvantages. For example, direct connection to a LAN may not be feasible for a remote service provider. In addition, systems and method for modifying the configuration of a firewall may be costly to implement. Furthermore, approaches that result in broad administrative privileges to external service providers may present a security risk to stakeholders of data in the managed network.
What is needed is a system and method that facilitates remote management of one or more networks, while mitigating the risk associated with providing access through network firewalls.